Cincinnati: Lucie Safarova scores first win against Venus Williams

After Women’s Tennis Blog’s successful photo coverage of Rogers Cup with photographer Jimmie48, I am very pleased to remind you that we are having a photographer on site at the Western & Southern Open as well! 🙂 This time it is Omar Boraby and it’s Women’s Tennis Blog’s first cooperation with him, so we hope everything will run smoothly regarding the galleries. Stay tuned!

But before we see the first set of photos, let’s mention the first big Tuesday’s news from the tournament – last week’s Montreal runner-upVenus Williams fell at the hands of world No.17 Lucie Safarova in the first round. Williams had showcased superb form at the recently-finished Rogers Cup and that reflected in her return to the Top 20, but the fact that she played four three-setters en route to the Montreal final makes her first-round exit in Cincinnati not much of a surprise, plus, we know that Safarova is always a tricky opponent.

Just two days after losing the Rogers Cup final to Agnieszka Radwanska, Venus returned to the courts and started off well, winning the opening set against Safarova by cruising through a tiebreak that followed the even set featuring ten initial holds and then two breaks. In the second set Venus had four chances to break Safarova’s serve, but converted none, while Safarova made use of her sole break opportunity midway through the set and forced the decider in which she raced to a 5-1 lead, and even though the match was not easily hers soon, she survived a late drama and closed it out 6-7(2) 6-3 6-4.